On the Effects of COVID-19 Safer-At-Home Policies on Social Distancing, Car Crashes and Pollution

Abel Brodeur, Nikolai Cook and Taylor Wright

No 13255, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In response to COVID-19, dramatic safer-at-home policies were implemented. The understanding of their impacts on social distancing, travel and pollution is in its infancy. We pair a differences-in-differences framework and synthetic control methods with rich cellular tracking and high frequency air pollution data. We find that state and U.S. county safer-at-home policies are successful in encouraging social distance; beginning the day of the policy trips outside the home are sharply decreased while time in residence rises sharply. With less vehicle traffic, we find: a 50% reduction in vehicular collisions; an approximately 25% reduction in Particulate Matter (PM2.5) concentrations; and a reduction of the incidence of county-days with an air quality index of code yellow or above by two-thirds. We calculate that the benefits from avoided car collisions could range from $7 billion to $24 billion while the benefits from reduced pollution could range from $650 million to $13.8 billion.

Keywords: COVID-19; safer-at-home; lockdowns; pollution; traffic; car crashes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: P48 Q53 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2020-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-reg, nep-res, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Published - published in: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2021, 3 (102427)

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Journal Article: On the effects of COVID-19 safer-at-home policies on social distancing, car crashes and pollution (2021)
Working Paper: On the Effects of COVID-19 Safer-At-Home Policies on Social Distancing, Car Crashes and Pollution (2021)
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